New member introducing myself

Question

I confess I'm a rather erratic genealogist.  I have a GED file going back to 1635 but I've never posted it because I want to find corroborating sources before I publicize it.  The surname is Small, originating in Maine (well, England before that).  At the moment I'm trying to find the birthdate of my father's younger sister, born 1903.  I've searched the Minnesota birth records and nothing comes up though I know she was born there, almost positive it was in Minneapolis.  She died in 1909 and I have all that information, but all birthdates just say 1903, including Find a Grave.  Her father was John Sanford Small, her mother was Sophie Huntington Williams and the girl's name was Louise Williams Small.  Can anyone help?  Can she be in the big tree?  Can I search it?  Not sure how to do this.  Appreciative of any help.  Susan Small Green.

Comments

Any use to you?

Louise M. Small

Minnesota Deaths and Burials, 1835-1990

Name:	Louise M. Small
Event Type:	Death
Event Date:	14 Jul 1909
Event Place:	Excelsior, Hennepin, Minnesota, United States
Event Place (Original):	Excelsior, Hennepin, Minn
Gender:	Female
Age:	4
Marital Status:	Single
Ethnicity:	American
Race:	W
Birth Date:	29 Aug 1904
Birthplace:	Ill.
Father's Name:	J. S. Small
Mother's Name:	Sophia H. Williams

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:H355-FL6Z

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9DL-4S3Z

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Don't worry about the name on that being Louise M, instead of Louise W.  All the other records I found say W -- and whoever wrote out the form has Ws that look like Ms, as can be seen by the mother's last name looking as though it is Milliams.  (You need to look at the actual image.)

Edited to add : in case you haven't seen this one (1930 census, Huntington W Small, Sophie W Moultrie (presumably for Williams), and Laurance J Moultrie, St Pau, MN) 

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X3D7-FJ9

image of census page - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRCN-HVB 

Also 1920 census : https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJLD-TPR

image of the census page - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR65-FH9

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This is my 3rd attempt. Sorry.  Thank you SO much for responding to my question.  I had no idea Louise was born in Illinois.  Her family before and after her birth lived in Minneapolis. No wonder I couldn't find it.  Question: On your death link, the Browse the Film went straight to her certificate.  On the birth link, though, I just got a full page of certificates.  How do you know the image number?

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I apologize.  Both links were for her death.  But did show the birth info, so very helpful.  I'm a real newly, but that mistake was just carelessness!

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I included the link for the image, not just the indexed transcription, because that way you can read it for yourself, without needing to trust that the transcriber got it correct.  (In this case, they did.)  And it allows you to grab the citation yourself, instead of trying to copy it from a  g2g post.

Sometimes the "where" can be as surprising as the "when".  I've had a few of the "where" surprises myself. 

Answer 1

Hi Susan, 

Thanks for trying to track down your sources before posting. To search for existing profiles, there's a search box at the top of any profile. I had a quick look and didn't find the names you mentioned.

Where have you looked for sources so far? You should add the tag Minnesota to catch the eye of people more familiar with the resources for there. 

Peggy

Answer 2

Hey Susan,

Welcome! Great to hear you are using sources a lot, highly appreciated here.

A good way to see if Louise is already in the tree is to search by her name in the main box on the front page.  Note that the search is not very good at spelling variations, so you should play around. Another nice way is to upload your gedcom to the gedcompare system here. That will not create anything like at other sites, but it will try to find matches for the persons in your gedcom. That will give hints as to where the connections are and give you the option to create profiles for the ones that are not (and thus adding to the tree).

Another tip is to use tags for your question here. A lot of the member are really good at record finding and they read questions using the tags. You now have 'Small' but you could add Minneapolis. Those searching people really are helped if you post links to known people on the tree, as they then can use the sources on those profiles to verify their search.